Blog Post #8: The Baby Doll Test

Throughout the semester, I have been thinking about doll test. Researchers use this test to ask children of many ethnicities subjective questions about the dolls, including “Which one is the nice doll?,” “Which one is the pretty doll?” and “Which doll looks like you?”. It is interesting that fifteen out of twenty one of the black children, when asked their preference of which doll they wanted to play with, preferred to play with the white doll. Throughout the video, children generally spoke positively of the white doll and negatively of the black doll. Many of these children see the black doll as “bad,” “hurtful,” and ugly.

The children’s reasoning for their opinions on the doll included their perceptions and stereotypes of individuals that they know or they have seen in the media. Young children are some of the most honest individuals in society, and if they have these types of feelings towards people of different races, that must be that adults have these feelings too. Also, they are not born feeling a certain way about an individual due to their skin color, rather these feelings evolve by listening to adult conversations and getting to know individuals of that skin color.

As a future educator, I want my future students to challenge these perceptions and stereotypes. There are always people who fit racial stereotypes accurately, but I want them to learn how to challenge these stereotypes. I want them to realize that humans do not all fit in the same cookie cutter, especially when discussing race, rather each one has parts of their life that are unique to themselves. Children I hope that young children will learn that race shapes parts of individual’s identity, but to not assume that all people of the same race behave in the same ways. I hope that my future students will gain awareness on race and learn how to interact with students who are of a different racial identity than themselves.

Link to The Doll Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZPw-9sJtQ